New Iceman Series Coming to LGBTQ Community

Iceman returns: Marvel Entertainment announced that the superhero, also known as Bobby Drake, a new solo series to release in September.

After his previous series had canceled in March something curious happened, collected editions were selling well on the book market. Both Sina Grace the writer and his editor surprised. After the hero was revealed to be gay, in 2015, plans to return, with the announcement, fittingly, coming during Pride Month (last month).

Iceman, who was first introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in issue No. 1 of X-Men in July 1963, land has made his way through animated series and into a film for the last 50 years. His new series began in 2017. Issue No. 6 from October 2017, Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman meets Judah Miller — who shows him around West Hollywood and takes him to a bar where the hero experiences his first dance, and kiss, with another man. Not the first openly gay comic kiss but kudos to Marvel Comics for maintaining an LGBTQ presence. What is impressive about Marvel is that they incorporate the LGBTQ community without making a huge deal out of it. The LGBTQ exists, and they are not going anywhere, so deal with it.

Thanks to the comic world, in his coming-out story of 2015, issue No.40 of All-New X-Men, a younger version of Bobby traveled to the present. Unfortunately, his secret unleashed by Jean Grey, his telepathic teammate. Safe to say that both past and present Bobbies met. They went on to talk about their “status,” and the discussion ended with present Bobby showing his misery. “I put all my energy into being a mutant and an X-Man and putting my life in danger every 10 minutes for everyone else,” the older Bobby says. “Can I just have part of my life that I’m not being persecuted for?”

The earlier Iceman story was written by Brian Michael Bendis, who is straight, his solo series, written by Mr. Grace, who is gay. The 2017 and 2018 issues dealt with the hero’s coming out to his parents. Now his parents were not too fond of him being a mutant either. His life is crazy, trying to date and be a full-time X-men, literally putting his life in jeopardy. Issue No. 1 sold over 32,000 copies to comic book stores in the United States. However, sales were slowing and issue No. 11, the last, dwindled to over 10,000.

X-Men books speak to people who identify as anything other than what they look. “We’re going to be seeing Bobby trying to figure out how he can be a shining beacon to the gay community. That’s where Bobby Drake and I are alike: How do you take this platform and try to do something meaningful?” Writer Sina Grace explained in an interview. The goal of comics is to show us another world and remind us that regardless of who we are or what we are, we can all be heroes.

Looking forward to this new series coming in September?? Tell us what you hope to see in the Iceman Storyline.